


Operation: Comic Book

by TofuTurtleHime2468



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Multi, One Shot Collection, Other, cuz i can kinda see nath being a confident gay but not really, i headcanon caline as nathan's mom it's a good headcanon, if there's a different genre or au i'll add more to the tags section, so if he does appear to act like one it's actually a fake-out, there's gonna be a lot of fluff, they're both panic gays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-07-06 23:43:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15896544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TofuTurtleHime2468/pseuds/TofuTurtleHime2468
Summary: Series of one-shots of Marc x Nathaniel which range in word count. Some times there'll be some friendship stuff with Nathaniel and Alix and Marc and Marinette.





	1. I Love you... (Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nathaniel suffers from compulsive lying disorder whenever Marc's around.

"...aybe I should but I can't just tell him that! I've never related to Marinette so badly befo-"

"C'mon Nath, it shouldn't be that hard," Alix sighs, skidding to a stop on her roller skates by Nathaniel.

"You say that like you've had a crush on someone before," Nathaniel mumbles, ignoring her expression scrunching up at the sight of his sketchbook. Before he could add on another remark in regards to her non-existent love life, he lets out a shout of protest when Alix pulls the sketchbook away from him.

His friend raises an eyebrow as she turns through the pages of his sketchbook, "I wouldn't describe what you have for Marc as a 'crush', that much I know." She turns the sketchbook back to Nathaniel and flips through the pages like (to Nath) some sort of horrid flip-book.

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Nathaniel tries to take back his book before Alix skates back slightly. He shoots her an unimpressed look, "Alix, this isn't funny."

"Well what do you consider more funny then?" Alix huffs, closing the sketchbook rather harshly, "Listening to your best friend ramble about the crush he has on his friend for almost two months while drawing nothing  _but_  him during said time span or taking away your sketchbook privileges until you confess to your crush?"

Nathaniel's eyes widen at that, "You're joking, right?"

"I've confiscated your sketchbook multiple times already so no, not really."

"Can't I always just buy another sketchbook?"

"Can't I always just show this to Marc?"

. . .

"Touché," Nathaniel frowns, Alix grinning in triumph. He huffs, "Normally you only do this when  _you_  know something that  _I_ don't, so what are you trying to tell me by using the carrot and stick method this time?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out later."

* * *

During the next day of school, Nathaniel feels like he might actually pass out from hyperventilating. Alix pats him on the back, "Hey, take deep breaths. I'm sure everything will be fine as long as you get the sentence through."

"Hey Nate!"

"Oh, gotta go," Alix runs off with a thumbs up, leaving the poor red-headed boy to panic as Marc approaches him with a small smile, clutching that black notebook in his arms against his chest.

"You said you wanted to tell me something before class starts?" Marc tilts his head slightly and Nathaniel already feels like melting into a puddle on the floor because he's weak okay. He takes a quick glance back, Alix giving another thumbs up from afar.

He takes a deep breath, turning back to Marc and staring straight into his eyes, "I love you!" and immediately feels regret flow into his system watching Marc's eyes slowly widen.

"You...r NAILS!"

 _Why am I like this?_ Nathaniel, in a moment of panic continues to follow his words by pointing at the writer's nails, "Th-They're really nice!"

Marc luckily doesn't appear to pick up on how Nathaniel is sweating nervously, instead smiling and displaying his black and white striped fingernails, a yellow, blue, and red dot respectively on his ring finger, "I'm glad you like them! I decided to base my nails off of Mightillustrator's design."

"Cute..."

"Hm?"

"YOUR NAILS! Y-Your nails are cute!" and he immediately turns around and yells, "I-I-I need to go to class now, bye Marc!"

Once he reaches to Alix is, who looks mildly amused, Nathaniel immediately asks, "Can you slap me? If not I can always slap myself," and received a pat on the back. She reassures him, "There's always next time."

* * *

At lunch time, the red-head saw Marc sitting underneath the staircase as usual, writing in his black, leather-bound journal as per usual.

 _This time...!_ Nathaniel stiffly marches up to Marc, sitting beside the writer who immediately notices his presence. Marc smiles at Nathaniel, "I was just finishing up the 5th chapter. Do you want to see the rough draft?"

"Sur- I mean- uh- I didn't come here to say that," Nathaniel feels the previous little bit of courage in him drain nearly immediately. He takes a deep breath, "I love you...r haIR CLIP!" And at this moment he briefly wonders whether he's a compulsive liar or not before denying it because technically what he changes the confession into instead is still accurate to how he views Marc.

Marc blinks innocently at him before realizing as to what he is referring to. He reaches up to the neon green hair clip, the accessory keeping his bangs from falling into his eyes when writing, "Ah, this? Thanks, but it's just to keep my hair out." With that said, the last thing Nathaniel expects is for Marc to reach out and hold up his bangs that would always cover his left eye. He pouts, "Hm, I don't understand how you can draw so perfectly when your hair always covers 50% of your vision."

By then Nathaniel wishes that he was still missing 50% of his vision because it's too much for his already malfunctioning brain to fully take in the sight of a pout-y Marc. The androgynous boy eyes widen, his face turning red and pulling back his hand, "S-SORRY! Th-That was t-too much, wasn't i-it?"

_This cuteness is a health hazard..._

"It's f-fine!" he blurts out lies before he accidentally said his thoughts, "I need to head to class now anyways!" Nathaniel then abruptly stands up which was a definite mistake on his part considering they were right below the lower half of the staircase and he practically rammed the back of his head into the metal steps but the pain doesn't register properly when his mind is in big panic gay mode and needed to run away at the moment.

(The pain does later register during the middle of Mme Bustier's lecture.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry there's a Part 2 ;P (head-warning though it's gonna be a hella lot shorter than this part)


	2. I Love You... (Pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nathaniel still suffers from compulsive lying disorder but at least his actions are genuine ft. a little peak at Marc's perspective.

Marinette wanders before spotting a red-faced Marc, walking over to him, "Did you finally tell him?"

"I...I touched his face..." Marinette gasps with delight.

"A-And then he hit his head on the staircase... and left for class..." Marinette deflates immediately.

"I-If you're still here... does that mean he lied to me...?" Marc squeaks in panic, "I knew lifting his hair was a mistake! Aah he's gonna hate me forever for getting so absorbed in my thoughts-!"

"Marc, calm down!" Marinette holds Marc's hands between her's comfortingly, "I understand that everything's a bit terrifying, but trust me this time when I say if you tell him then everything will be fine, Alix can definitely vouch for it if your ask her too."

"I-I trust you! I-It's just that..." Marc's voice soften significantly, "Every time I think he's about to confess... he just compliments about a specific trait of me... I don't know, Nate isn't the type to play with feelings like that though..."

"Hm..." Marinette hums before lighting up with an idea, "Well, maybe two can play this game?" Marinette winks.

* * *

Today is the day that Nathaniel is currently suffering with feeling like there will be a miracle or he'll make Alix disappointed again. He sighs, setting his pencil down and stopping his progress with drawing the comic, sitting still in the silence of the art club room.

 _It can't be that hard, right?_ To test whether he can actually say those words, he quietly says, "I-I love-"

"Nate?"

"LOVE THESE LYRICS ROSE WROTE!"

 _My life is a mess send halp please,_ is his immediate first thought, realizing that Rose's notebook is nowhere on his desk. Marc eyebrows scrunch up in confusion at that, Nathaniel forcing a laugh in response, "Sh-She showed me earlier and it was good... haha...ha." He quickly clears his throat, redirection the topic of the conversation, "S-So, what did you need?"

"Oh! Well, I- um..." Marc fidgets with his fingers, face turning pink slowly. He scrunches his eyes shut, opening his mouth as though he is about to yell out something but instead a small voice comes out, "I love you... uh- y-your-"

But the rest of the words don't process as Nathaniel quickly stands up and grabs Marc's wrist, pulling him towards him with only one want in mind. It takes a while, but eventually Nathaniel does back away, a bit breathless and his face feeling like it could melt off at any moment, "S-Sorry Marc, but god, you don't know how long I've been wanting to do that."

He watches how Marc appears frozen in face, turning 10 different shades of red as he raises a hand to his lips. Nathaniel raises an eyebrow, sympathizing as he feels abashed himself for jumping that quickly, but the absolutely ecstastic feeling of having his feelings reciprocated seems to have beaten it to the punch.

"... Marc?"

And then Marc faints.

"OH GAWD MARC?!"


	3. Story Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caline is just trying her best to put the children to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to see how Astruc will deal with Chloe after Queen Bee considering after Zombizou she had hints of character development but immediately fell back to being a brat.
> 
> Update on whether I'll get a Tumblr or not: super tempted because of Nathmarc November that I kinda really want to participate in hmmm

Caline flipped to the final page, the image depicting a wedding scene between the prince and the princess, "'And the prince and princess lived happily ever after.'" She concluded, slowly closing the book.

"What about the dragon after the prince came?" six year-old Alix asked, rising to sit up in the queen sized bed.

"He... went into a very deep sleep," Caline smiled awkwardly as she placed the book back in its place on the book shelf in the room.

"So he died."

Six year-old Marc gasped at that, tears building up at the corners of his eyes, "He did?!" Before he could end up crying, six year-old Nathaniel quickly hugged Marc, comforting the poor boy, "It's okay, Marc. Maman always tells the truth, Alix is just being a meanie."

Alix proceeded to blow a raspberry at the red-head, Caline laughing at the children's antics, "Let's go to sleep now, okay?"

"Aw c'mon, tantine! Tell Nath he's just being silly by calling me a meanie!" Alix pouted.

"I'm not being silly! I'm just protecting Marc from your lies," Nathaniel retorted before Caline could answer.

"Marc isn't some princess, Nath," Alix replied, unamused.

"Nu-uh! He's my princess and I'm going to protect him!" Nathaniel huffed indignantly, gasping dramatically when Alix jerked Marc away from his grasp into her arms.

"Then I'm the dragon that's gonna keep the princess to myself!" Alix stuck her tongue out mockingly, the "princess" looking more confused than upset at the moment now. She shouted in protest when Marc was lifted out of her arms, Caline laughing at the whole fiasco as she settled Marc onto her lap.

"I'll be the fairy godmother that helps the princess then. Now then, settle down kids, just because Marc is the princess doesn't mean he can't have a say in this also," she smiled at said boy, "He has every right to say something too, hm?"

When everyone's attention turned to Marc, he blushed at the expectant gazes waiting for his response. He hummed in thought at first, before quietly asking, "If I'm the princess, does that mean I get a wedding?"

"Yes."

"And tantine can come?"

"Yes."

"And Alix can come still? When she's done sleeping?"

"Yes." Calline could vaguely hear Alix mumbling a few complaints but when she glanced over she could see how the girl looked happy that she was remembered by Marc, even though she accidentally placed herself in the position of the dead dragon.

"And my wedding is with Nate?"

Before the mother could answer, Nathaniel sat up, exclaiming excitedly, "YES!" Although Calline smiles at the children slowly becoming excited again, she puts a finger to her mouth, shushing her son, "Quiet, mon mignon. Papa is sleeping, remember?" He responded with a small gasp, slapping his hands against his mouth, a dejected, "Sorry, maman," came from behind his hands.

"It's okay, I forgive you. Come on, you guys should really go to sleep now," she placed Marc back in the center of the bed, the other two obeying after quickly huddling around their returned friend. She picked up the blanket they messed up by shuffling around so much beforehand and pulls it back over them, giving each of them a kiss on the forehead. She glanced at them one last time with a smile before turning to leave, pausing at the doorway to place a hand over the light switch.

"Good night, sweet dreams."


	4. "Friends"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marc just likes the presence of others, okay?

If there's anything surprising about Marc, Marinette will definitely argue that it would be how he is actually a pretty touchy guy once he is close enough to someone. Marinette was definitely surprised when after becoming Marc's friend he would press their sides together when sitting next to each other or when they're walking together and he would hold onto her arm, but now she doesn't really mind. Whatever makes the naturally shy boy comfortable, she'll accept wholeheartedly.

The only issue with this is being mistaken as a couple outside of school settings (to which the last thing she needs is for Adrien to find out about this gossip and then reject her and move on with his life with another girl and she'd end up her entire life as a lonely cat lady ahahaha ;w;). With that being said, she now runs into the current situation in the art club room after Marc and Nathaniel became close friends.

"Aaaawww, you guys are so cute together~!" Rose coos, "How long have you guys been together?"

Nathaniel only quirks an eyebrow at her, Marc oblivious to the situation as he's too engrossed in the novel he's currently reading. The red-head asks back quizically, "Uh, Rose, what are you even talking about?"

"Well, couples sit in each other's laps normally, right?" Rose now appears confused enough to be doubting that generalization.

For context, a few minutes ago Nathaniel was casually sitting in his chair, spacing out. Marc then came into the room, engrossed in a book he was reading, and also casually took a seat--on Nathaniel's lap. Marinette didn't and still doesn't know how long this has been going on for Marc to so nonchalantly sit in the awkward artist's lap, but she assumes more than enough or that Marc is just a special case when Nathaniel wrapped his arms around Marc's waist and tucked his chin over his shoulder to peer at the book's contents, the writer leaning back in return. No one decided to question it until the peppy blonde came skipping into the room.

"Rose," Marinette decides to intervene, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder, "Marc is a... naturally clingy person," the small statement serving enough for Rose to understand.

"Yeah, this is completely normal between friends," Nathaniel adds.

"Yes because it's completely normal for me to sit in your lap," Alix joins from afar, rolling her eyes as she settles down a can of spray paint next to Juleka, who's focused on tuning on her guitar.

If Marc wasn't sitting on his lap, it's easy to guess that he would've thrown something at her, instead narrowing his eyes, "Alix, you know that you don't count. Last time I checked I barely tapped you on the shoulder last time and you literally grabbed me and flipped me over your shoulder."

"It's a good self-defense skill, okay? Also touching isn't really my thing. Anyways, that's exactly my point for you. Rose hugged you once and you had the facial expression of a kitten that got water sprayed at its face," Alix retorts.

Nathaniel doesn't look that happy about the comment, huffing indignantly before returning his attention to Marc and his book. Marc pats Nathaniel on the head, giggling, "It's an accurate description."

"No it's not!" Nathaniel defends.

"So... they're not a couple?" Rose asks as Nathaniel tried to defend his dignity, to which Marinette shakes her head "no". The bluenette drags the blonde away from the two, suggesting, "We should let the two of them be now."

Once the girls leave, Marc redirects the topic, whispering, "Did Rose ask if we were dating?"

"Yeah, and I told her no since we haven't really talked about telling our friends," Nathaniel whispers back, "But when Marinette said that you're a naturally clingy person, was that true?"

"Well yeah, but it's not like I sit on my other friends' laps like this, you know."

"I mean I hope not. I don't need the image of you sitting in someone like Adrien's lap for the rest of the day," Nathaniel grumbles, holding Marc a little tighter than before.

"Aw, Nate, I love you too much to do that," Marc laughs.

Nathaniel stares at Marc for a moment before burrying his face into the back of Marc's shoulder, the latter questioning him. He answers with a muffled, "...on't do s...hing so cute I w...s about to kiss you..."

It takes a moment for the words to fully register into Marc's head, the writer turning bright red, whining, "Nate!"

"I couldn't help but say that, okay?!" Nathaniel replies back, looking as embarrassed as his boyfriend.

 

 

 

("They're actually dating, right?" Juleka asks, quietly observing the two.

"Oh, definitely. Trust me, they suck at hiding it," Alix answers with a snort.)


	5. Le Paon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathaniel has trouble trying to balance his two lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw a tumblr post with Nathaniel with the peacock miraculous and was influenced from that (I think the artist was Astrosense? If someone can send the link to that post I'd be very thankful so that I can properly give credit for the idea).

If the world was ending and he could only save several people, Marc would always be his first choice. Of course Marc would be his first choice, he was his best friend and he held much deeper feelings than what best friends would normally have. Before he would ever want to try to go any farther than their current relationship, he wants to make sure Marc was always safe and protected.

That's why Nathaniel continued running, cursing for already being out of breath because of his wimpy stature when he really needed stamina at the moment. Once he caught sight of Marinette's family's bakery, he ran up to it and on and swung open the doors and entering, ignoring the screams of terror in the background.

"M-Madame Dupain-Cheng, can you shelter Marc until t-the akuma is stopped?" Nathaniel asked at the sight of Marinette's mother, letting go of Marc's wrist.

"Of course, sweetie," Sabine answered quickly, gently pulling a just as out of breath Marc over to a chair to rest. Nathaniel turned, about to sprint, when Marc spoke up, asking, "N-Nate, where are you going?"

 _Jeez, how does she do this all the time?_ "Uh- s-somewhere!" he didn't have time to think of an excuse seeing how pedestrians were binded by an assortment of flowers that sprouted from nowhere in the ground. He ran back out before Marc could interfere again, praying silently that Marinette's parents kept him safe. Nathaniel glanced around as he sprinted, trying to spot a familiar red figure before suddenly feeling himself get tugged backwards into an alleyway between houses.

"Be more careful next time, Nathaniel, you almost got imprisoned by flowers there!"

"S-Sorry, Ladybug," Nathaniel apologized quickly.

Ladybug sighs, clipping her yo-yo back onto her hip before handing out a black box with intricate red designs to the artist, "It's okay, just be more careful next time. Remember, such a situation needs all Miraculous wielders, even Le Paon."

* * *

"W-What does Nate think he's doing?!" Marc panicked, about to chase after him if not for Sabine's gentle grip on his hand.

"Calm down, I'm sure Nathaniel is smart enough to know what he's doing," Sabine tried to reassure, but it barely helped as Marc could hear those screams that seemed to be never-ending.

This always happened.

There would be an akuma attack, Nathaniel would lead Marc to shelter, and just when he thought he would follow like before, he would instead run back out into danger and not come back until Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day. During that period of time, Marc was always on edge, anxiously wondering if Nathaniel ever got hurt from trying so hard to always protect him, never looking after himself. That willing selflessness was both a dream trait that he wished for in someone he loved but also a nightmare in its entirety.

Marc bit the bottom of his lip, carefully but firmly pulling Sabine's grip off of his hand, "I'm sorry, Madame Dupain-Cheng. I need to find Nate." He slowly but surely turned and ran out of the bakery, met with the sights of flower statues, wondering where Nathaniel could even run to in such a state of panic.

"Well, what a beautiful lily."

He snapped out of his daze, turning and coming face to face with the akuma, laying lazily on the rooftop of the Dupain-Cheng's bakery and endearingly staring down at him like a mother would to her child. She smiled, the smile a borderline smirk, "Perfect for my royal garden," and raised a hand.

Instinctively, Marc squeezed his eyes shut and held his arms up in defense, but instead opened his when he realized that he was being held bridal style and wind blew against him. He looked up and saw red hair with the fringes held back by a peacock-tail hair pin, a blue mask covering the face. Although the appearance was rare in comparison to heroes like Rena Rouge or Carapace, Marc could still recognize them, "Le Paon?"

They stopped hopping from one building to another at the side of the Louvre, the hero's composed expression changing quickly to one of worry, shouting, "Marc, what did you think you were doing?! You could have gotten hurt!"

Startled, Marc quickly answered, "Ah, s-sorry!" before realizing how strange the situation was, "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Er- lucky guess," Le Paon muttered, placing Marc onto his feet gently, "Anyways, don't do that again! You should've immediately taken shelter when you saw those weird statues. If I wasn't there who knows what would've happened to you!"

"But...!" he paused briefly, understanding the worries of trying to protect someone, but still, "I... my best friend, he might be in danger..." and he wasn't sure why, but Le Paon took a step back, eyes widening as he said a quiet, "Oh."

Marc hugged himself, changing where he was looking to the ground and continuing to mumble, "I wanted to make sure that he was safe..."

"Hey," he felt a gloved hand cup his cheek, making him look up into Le Paon's eyes that were oddly familiar, "I'm sure he's fine. I know that if he cares about you as much as you do for him then he would've wanted you to keep safe too." There was something so loving and caring about that gaze that Marc felt breathless.

"I need to help the others now, so please take shelter at the louvre for now," Le Paon pleaded, gaze lingering on him before running and jumping away.

For a moment, Marc stood there, unsure as to what just happened, but his cheek still felt warm and his heart-

_Oh no._

* * *

"Man, that last akuma attack must have been a major issue if all six of the miraculous heroes had to get involved," Alix commented the next day during lunch.

"Yeah, but it was cool to see them together as a whole at least," Nathaniel tried to reply casually because although he was now part-time hero, he doubted he could ever get used to trying to hide his identity and alias.

Alix looked across the courtyard and perked up, "Oh look, it's Mari and Marc. Hey guys!" She grabbed Nathaniel's arm and pulled him along to the duo, both realizing too late that they probably walked in on a conversation that they weren't meant to walk in on.

"...ou deal with having crushes on two different people?" Marc asked Marinette, face flushing a bright red.

And Nathaniel choked on his own spit.

When accepting the responsibility of wielding the peacock miraculous, he definitely did not expect to now have to balance heroic manners with his already suffering and awkward love life.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo this is supposed to be updated tri-weekly (every 3 weeks) because this ship needs more content and I've been getting very lazy with updates for essentially everything so if I miss an update uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh scream at me? Jk jk don't actually scream at me cuz I'm already dealing with a lot of stress that is called college and scholarship applications so this is meant to be relaxing for me too ;-;
> 
> Anyways, it's obvious I'm not sure as to when or how long I can keep this story up considering I might not have time to finish the chapter I was working on, instead choose to work on a different story to update instead, or run out of ideas so if any of these are the case:
> 
> 1) I'll just post a doodle I've been working on instead cuz Marc is ALL I've been drawing lately (debating on whether I should get a Tumblr and/or Twitter or not hmmm) (debatable cuz there's a lot of crapstorms that happen on both sites compared to DeviantART (which I do have) cuz the only "serious" problem I've seen with DeviantART other than art theft that the general internet faces is NSFW/fetish art that people don't properly censor)
> 
> 2) Drop a request or something if you want and I'll do my best to finish it by the next update
> 
> If you have any comments or questions feel free to tell me :)


End file.
